'Watching' medicine: do bioethicists respect patients' privacy?

Abstract

Agich has identified 'watching' --the formal or informal observation of the medical setting-- as one of the four main roles of the clinical bioethicist. By an analysis of a case study involving a bioethics student who engaged in watching at an HIV/AIDS clinic as part of his training, I raise questions about the ethical justification of watching. I argue that the invasion of privacy that watching entails makes the activity unacceptable unless the watcher has received prior consent from the patients who are being observed. I conclude that, even though it is important for bioethics students to understand the complexities of actual medical practice, watching should play a prominent role in bioethics education only if the privacy problems in it can be resolved.